A campaign group has called on the government to introduce a sugar tax to discourage consumption of sweetened soft drinks. Action on Sugar said it had developed a seven-point plan to curb childhood obesity following a request for its views from the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

The measures include bringing in a sugar tax, limiting the availability of ultra-processed foods and sweetened soft drinks, and banning junk food sports sponsorship. The group’s chairman, Professor Graham MacGregor, said, Obesity in children leads to the premature development of cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attacks and heart failure, which are the commonest cause of death and disability in the UK. A tax could be put on fizzy drinks and biscuits could be emblazoned with health warnings in a new strategy to slash the nation’s sugar intake.

A report commissioned by a Government agency says that targeting soft drinks would be an easy option in the war on sugar. It estimates that a 20 per cent tax on fizzy drinks – which would raise the price of a can from 70p to 84p – would cut the number of overweight Britons by more than a quarter of a million.

The ‘options for action’ document, which was prepared for Public Health England, identifies six possible ways of reducing sugar intake: a tax on sugary drinks; foods being reformulated to contain less sugar; a cut in portion sizes; advertising rules being tightened; health warnings on sugary products; and encouraging farmers to grow fruit and vegetables instead of sugar beet. The draft report describes sugary soft drinks as ‘low-hanging fruit’ – or an easy target – and says a 20 per cent sugar tax would reduce obesity rates by 1.3 per cent. It argues that the move would have public support, ‘especially when health benefits are emphasized.

According to figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Australia climbed to fourth in their rankings of advanced nations with the largest proportion of obese citizens. They found that 28.3 per cent of the population are now obese, behind the US, Mexico and New Zealand. It is also in the top ten countries in the world per-capita for consumption of soft drinks. a 20 per cent sales tax on the price of a soft drink would add around $A18 to the annual tax bill of households. The team say that the higher prices would be more than outweighed by the health benefits of people reducing their intake of soft drinks. For average consumers of these beverages, the reduction in bodyweight would be relatively modest at 0.3 kg, but for individuals who drink a lot of these drinks, the reduction could be up to 2.1 kg per year.

The effects would be even more striking if a 20 cents per litre volumetric tax were applied. They found that it could lead up to 3.64 kilograms in weight loss in people on low incomes who consume large amounts of sugary drinks. This is because people who are big consumers of sugary drinks usually buy multipacks. As a volumetric tax is based on the volume of drink sold, consumers would have to pay more, which could deter them from making larger purchases.

This is Walmart’s first such plunge into launching the wholesale cash and carry business online. Globally, Walmart has operations in 11,000 retail units under 71 banners in 27 countries. Through its e-commerce pilot Walmart is targeting over 30,000 people to switch to the online platform in India. The company is targeting local kirana shops and other merchants within a radius of 40-50 km from the store compared to the current reach of about 20-30 km.

E-commerce represents an additional channel for us to serve our members better with the added convenience of ordering online, door-step delivery within 24 hours and several payment solutions, observed Krish Iyer, president and chief executive, Walmart India on the launch. On the other hand, local retailers and kirana shop owners affiliated with Confederation of All India Traders which has lobbied hard with the government to keep away FDI in multi-brand retail claimed they were not aware of the development. Even though there is the strong opposition to FDI and the companies such as Walmart should ensure that its only business consumers who are served and e-commerce is not a back channel for selling to non business consumers, claimed a local retailer from Lucknow.

This year, Walmart might see a 30% jump in its e-commerce revenue through global operations, according to firm’s projections. The company will sell its 5,000 SKUs available in stores through the online portal barring fresh and frozen products such as vegetables, fruits, meat, and ice-creams and start a e-commerce operations across all its twenty stores in India by January 2015.

Prior to the launch, Wal-Mart India organised workshops with members in the two cities to generate awareness about the initiative and to create a better understanding about website navigation, benefits and registration processes, the company said in a statement. The platform, www.bestpricewholesale.co.in, is for registered members of Best Price Modern Wholesale stores. At present, Wal-Mart is engaged in cash-and-carry business in India. It called off a six-year partnership with Bharti Enterprises in October last year and decided to operate stores independently in India.

Indian sport equipment manufacturers are experiencing the strongest demand in the last decade since the surging popularity in Badminton, Volleyball, Football and Cricket. With the improvements in recent occasions and competitions by the Indian compatriots in various countries, the government and new entrants in sports equipment manufacturers have emerged with better developments and facilities to promote sports culture in a larger way. Cricket is the most followed sport in India, right from school level to regular day-to-day recreation time is spent playing cricket on smaller and larger scales by the majority population. The factors that are driving the high growth include, increased health awareness and fitness-related benefits, growing number of health clubs and gyms, training centers for various outdoor sports, global standard facilities and state of the art services, grounds and stadiums getting makeovers etc.

The sports equipments manufacturers are bound to increase the production as the growing demand from various regions, domestic and international are making revenues reach sky high and the simultaneous promotions for outdoor activities from companies, schools and colleges, organizations requiring sports equipment for recreation, the demand is strongly expected to grow in the near future. The performances of Indian players in international events has propelled Indian equipment manufacturers to spend extra in productions, marketing and promotions for acquiring market share in various regions. In addition, the fast-moving lifestyles and severe time constraints have led to direct impacts on the health of many people and the active promotions for incorporating changes in healthy and fitness activities have increased the sales of sports and gym equipment across the country, as a result, many new competitors have established chains of fitness centers and franchises to gain more from the urban population that is in severe need.

The corporate houses have started to set up gyms at their premises to maintain mental and physical health of employees as the benefits of top working professionals that utilize the mind and body combination and advertising health culture are resulting in many advantages in increased productivity, fewer health related leaves, increased pro-activeness and creativity have all led to corporations and schools alike to invest in sports equipment. Thus, the Indian sports equipment market has experienced a strong growth in many years and the comparison and competition is in line with any western and European nation where there is a high percentage of revenue generated from sports equipment market. In India, the sports equipment industry generated the total revenue of US $2.1 billion approximately in 2009 and with the CAGR of 7.1%. The performance of the market has forecast the value to reach $2.8 billion approximately by 2014 at 5.5% CAGR.

As the trend of sports and fitness awareness is getting and gaining popularity, many sportsperson, expert industrialists and economists predict that there will be more aggressive promotions for sports equipment by the organizations and corporations. Many advertisement deals are made with famous sports celebrities in order to gain maximum mileage out of endorsements that persuade people into investing more money into sports equipment.

European retail market is continuously changing and it is becoming increasingly difficult to ascertain the conditions and forecasts in the European Debt Crisis. But, the fast booming trends and influences such as growing population, political landscape, developed technologies, scarcity of resourced and economic changes are contributing to the large sum of economic stability that is finally taking shape in European countries. Trends such as these have the power to influence the behavior, demands and needs of consumers and which in turn can cause economic instability to lead to more price quality conscious consumers. It usually depends on the size, demographic and characteristics of the market as a health trend may have more impact in the food and cosmetic segment than in wooden or metal furniture segments. There have been several trends noted for the ten year forecast that can prove to be improving the market segments such as apparels, furniture, natural ingredients, food, cosmetics and DIY products.

The recent newcomers on the retail scene are expected to develop as specialist discounters are known to expand in their own trades and the conventional retailers are expected to adopt different forms of discount trading. There have been many threatening and negatively impacting signs on European market, especially from Smartphone market in recent times due to retail spending showing ominous signs of weakness since a couple of months. Voluntary groups, established organizations are looking forward to present UK with opportunities for international marketing. The incoming large-scale units such as hypermarkets and supermarkets will not be affected or hampered as the prospects of further change that could prove to be positive are very strong and might result in sustainability for near future to come.

There is an enormous scope for growth in retail than just from shopping centers; although in Eastern Europe shopping centers have been the focus of many international retailers planning to establishing and engaging in a particular market to reap more benefits and acquire a larger chunk of market share. Europe is the home to discount retailing, especially in Germany from where four out of five leading European discounters originate. In addition, with the value of approximately €68 billion the German discount sector is more than three times the size of any other discount market. Even though some western European countries such as UK, Spain and Ireland are growing rapidly in discounters market, the German market has reached a saturation point and the growth is slowed down gradually. Therefore, leading discounters are looking to many eastern European countries and emerging markets to drive growth. As consumers increasingly look for quality and varied choice with a value for money, discounters cannot focus entirely on price and they will have to flex their models and propositions to meet new and emerging market needs.

For many reasons, European market can sustain itself with more and more export of products and maintain a stability on trends such as changing competitive landscape, demographic shifts, growing consumer concerns about sustainability, increase in regulatory pressure, increased importance of health, adoption of supply chain technologies and increase in consumer service demands. It is highly important to understand trends that affect or cause a positive effect to the growing economy as many a times, several trends influence each other and the combined effect of trends can result in new trends being established. Europe accounts for more than 20% of global high-end smartphone sales and the power to retain that market has been very strong despite every year the number keeps declining.

India’s online retail industry seems to be generating a lot of momentum in revenue growth, brand value, and consumer base. As the world is getting more digital friendly, the basic needs- from housing to food, clothes and essential devices, books and electronic equipments; almost all are available and accessible easily on the worldwide web. Traditionally, when people would go to stores, shopping malls or outlets, they would find a large supply of variety of products to choose from. The world that is present online comprises similarly offers almost everything that is needed for daily usage, so the large number of population getting attracted to purchasing on a digital world is a boon for building a more accessible, efficient and sustainable future.

Developed countries have had a long experience in online retail, the US in this matter has given a great insight into how well the retailing industry works. Following the basic idea, pattern and structure of online retail giants such as Amazon and e-bay, many enterprises have paved their way into their regional market. One such market is India where there are 27+ major players that are functioning across the country with full potential.

There are plenty of online retailers in the world and they have established and made a strong brand value for themselves over the years; with the help of marketing & advertising, high quality services, diverse and wide spread locations and last but not the least, consumer loyalty. India’s online retail is an emerging market for many involved in the production, distribution and retail. As they see a potential growth in the expanding internet users base, clearly the major entrepreneurs would like to make the most of available resources, different types of consumers and different tastes by offering specifically the right amount and appropriate services that will satisfy everyone.

With just over a decade old existence, Indian online retail market has grown exponentially and continues to do so allowing newer entrants with innovative strategies and plans for acquisition of major market share. For consumers, there are various benefits, convenience, ability to choose and compare are what driving online retail market to a thriving economic force in today’s age. With more advanced features added for enhanced and efficient purchase, online retailers are improving their marketing strategies according to the demand.

The total size and value of online retail market in India is set to reach US $76 billion by 2021, according to Technopak, which estimates that the growth will be hundred fold as the current value. The growing internet users on computers, tablets and smartphones are what resulting in the massive upscale of the online retail market in India as the study estimates that there will be more than 150 million users by 2020. Indian online retailers are emerging as important channels that drive huge sales for variety of brands; Indian metros and cities population, younger generation in particular, is allowing online retail to flourish successfully. From apparel to accessories, electronic devices to furniture and almost everything is accessible and available in different online retail stores. To give one example- Flipkart is India’s largest online retail store that offers lakhs of variety of products to providing employment to thousands.

In the recent times, international giants such as Amazon and e-bay have set up their stores and planned to cater their unique services. There is a huge challenging factor that online retail in India needs to overcome, that is of the convenient and provision stores’ capacity to retain customers. These independent mom-and-pop shops allow customers to build a relationship that online retail doesn’t allow or even capable of, so the biggest hurdle for online retail market to cross would be personalizing of experiences when a customer shops online, when the shopping is made more interactive and when a customer is given discounts and offers will he plan to return. Indian customers demand perks along with the products they buy, the independent convenient and provision stores have built up a huge relationship over generations that online retailers find difficult to attract. Although, more and more digitization is automatically drawing customers to invest time in online shopping, it is only up to the online retailers to find suitable and strategic ways to satisfy and retain them.

Online shopping provides an opportunity to the retailers to sell their products more effectively and efficiently to the customers and hence is not a threat to traditional retail. By adopting online retailing concept, customers can be targeted more specifically online and get to know about their changing habits by monitoring them closely and most importantly provide a better customer experience and consequently more business for retailers.

Today, online retailing is on a boom, with most of the customers worldwide preferring to shop online rather than spending a lot of time in the store. There are various options given to the customers online such as reviews about the product, cost and also suggestions for purchasing a particular brand.

In the near future, most of the retail stores will be converted into an online retailing centre, where the customers will be given an option to click on a particular product and the in-store staff will use the wireless devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to place the order.

Rapid growth for retailers is expected in 2013, by adopting multichannel approach in its store by means of digital channels, which includes features such as creating online fulfilment centres, providing click and collect services for Wi-Fi consumers and also providing devices for in-store staff that will help them to check stock and also order products for the customers online.

Apart from these features, providing the customers with unique experiences of in-store by using their own mobile devices via augmented reality technology is the major challenge to the online retailers.

In this technology, customers will be invited to the ‘online retail theatre’, where the retailers will provide information about various products, their cost, brand names, utility aspect and its current market trend. Due to the constant communication between the brands and the online retailing store through large number of mediums (social media), the online retailing fulfilment centre can provide best reviews about the product to the customers and consequently increases the popularity of the online retail store and the branded products associated with it, among the world-wide customers.

Recycling technology is the main priority for the packaging industry. In the past few years, there were many new ways of recycling method that had come up, such as increasing the recycling rate of aluminium cans, recycle plastic aluminium foil, efficient ways to recycle cartons etc.

Aluminium is one of the most future-proof packaging materials which have excellent barrier properties and recyclability. Hence, Europe is planning to develop more efficient recycling technologies for this material in the near future.

Recycling of plastic-aluminium laminate foil is one area which is been developing since many years.

Major players of packaging industry have started recognising the need to step up global aluminium recycling levels. In 2012, Novelis, the world leader in aluminium rolling had brought $250 million aluminium recycling and casting centre to its Nachterstedt plant in Germany. This new centre annually will enable to produce 400,000 metric tonnes of aluminium sheet from recycled material, hence it is considered as the largest aluminium recycling centre in the world.

Paper sludge is a waste product created from recycled paper, more than 25 million metric tonnes of which is accumulated annually worldwide. By converting the paper sludge, it not only benefits the environmental, but is also found useful for other industry sectors.

The process by which energy and minerals are obtained from deinking sludge is known as CTC (Controlled Thermal Conversion) technology. This technology converts paper sludge from packaging and other sources into thermal energy and valuable materials.

Mixed plastics recycling is another method used for recycling. In UK, mixed plastics recycling sector was opened in 2012. £15 million facility in the north Lincolnshire, UK will start using this advanced technology in order to integrate both plastic bottles and polymers processing. The facility is a joint-venture recycling operation between Coca-Cola Enterprises and ECO Plastics. Annually it is estimated that extra 15,000 tonnes of rigid plastic packaging will be recycled.

Even though in UK, around 50 per cent of plastic bottles are currently recycled, there are products such as yoghurt pots, dark plastic ready meal trays and protective film recycling is a major challenge.

In the IT retail investment sector, E-commerce is given high priority and is at the top of the list for the next 3 years and the online sales is expected to increase by 40 percent in the near future, as per the latest updates given by ComputerWorld UK.

For most of the retailers in UK, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become a common usage by making online transactions via smartphones and tablets. In 2012, m-commerce generated a revenue growth of 2.9 percent of the total sales, according to the survey. The survey also says that in the near future, the global retail sector will be completely based on Cloud Computing.

In UK, the online sales is expected to account for between 30 and 40 percent of total sales mainly for mass market and department stores in future, as per the survey of 150 leading UK retailers from retail consulting company Martec.

In general, the total revenue generated by the online retail sector is mainly due to sale of retail goods through online channels which are priced at retail selling price. Online retailing does not include travel and ticket bookings, online corporate purchasing, and online auction transactions.

In 2011, the global online retail sector had total revenues of $530.2 billion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4% between 2007 and 2011. But by 2016, the global online retail sector is expected to reach $1,096 billion, with an increase of 106.7% compared to the revenue generated in 2011, as per the data given by MarketLine.

In the global online retail sector, Electronics is considered as the largest segment which generated a total revenue of $119.2 billion, equivalent to 22.5% of the sector’s overall value in 2011. Between the period 2011-2016, online electronics sales is forecast to reach 15.6% which will in turn increase the revenue of online retail sector to a value of $1,096 billion by 2016.

Among all other countries in the world, the online retail sector of Americas accounts to 39.3% of the global online retail sector value.

Asia has become the most promising market for retailers around the world, having 60 percent of the world’s population along with some of the fastest growing economies in its continent such as India, according to the latest updates given by Big Data analytics.

Between 2011 and 2015, Asia projects phenomenal progress in online retailing with an average growth rate of 20 percent per annum and also will remain the main engine of global retail development with an average annual growth rate of 6 percent and the growth rate is expected to be more than the other continents, according to a recent industry research.

India is considered as one of the most preferred retail destinations. As per the survey, a further boost to the Indian retail industry is expected because of the government’s decision of allowing 100 percent FDI in single brands. In this country, new international retail giants like Walmart are in a process of setting shop and the existing players are striving hard to reach the country’s tier 2 and tier 3 markets.

In the retail market targets must be achieved, where product duplication is almost immediate, the retail leaders must immediately respond to changes in customer demand. Technology solutions must be adopted quickly which will help in improved decision-making and drive faster response times to market needs.

Big Data’s study patterns in customer behavior and their demands, in the form of transaction history, purchase frequency and web-behavior, will be a great help to the retailers. Big Data Analytics have identified the most valuable customers from a 360 degree view. Hence they are helping the retailers to understand the customer behavior segmentation and what actions trigger behavior attributes in different segments and channels. It executes real-time marketing at the time of purchase and also provides improvements to loyalty programs and also reveals factors such as customer experience, ease of use, value for money and effect from rewards programs that will truly impact customer loyalty and retention.

Globally for brick and mortar stores “browse but not buy” behaviour is a common problem. Today, the retail customers have become modernized and are online, selective and social. They compare prices on the web, scan QR codes and browse at the stores before making an online purchase. Hence, CEOs of major retail organizations are seriously considering analysis and survey’s made by Big Data platform and their predictive customer behavioural analytics in order to get a wider view of customers in terms of interaction models, channels, behavioural segmentation, responses, marketing strategy, and marketing execution and in turn improve on its relevance and perceived customer value.

A double digit-growth for the consumer industry in 2013 is predicted by the Philippine Retail Association (PRA), a group of homegrown retailing firms. This growth is driven by continuous growth in retail companies mainly due to a number of local and international retail brands.

In 2013, a double-digit growth for the retail sector is expected to reach at least 10%. The retail sales reached P1.42 trillion in 2012, but this year traditional growth drivers are expected to increase the sales of the Philippine retail industry, according to Frederick D. Go, PRA president in an interview, published on manilatimes.net. He also said that the election which is going to happen this year is one of the main drivers for the growth of consumer industry. He also added that whole retail industry is expected to welcome more players coming in, including foreign brands into the Philippine market which will also be a boost to the retail industry.

Mr Go said that in 2013, there would be growth in BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry, which is another strong industry and a dollar earner for the country because it provides high-quality jobs, high-paying jobs for the Filipino youth.

He also said that the food and clothing sectors might perform well in 2013. In terms of sales, food will be quite high up there as compared to the last decade or so, as food has been outpacing hard goods and is quite obvious that as people become wealthier, they tend to dine out more often. But on the other hand, trend to go in for more affordable clothing would be seen this year.

He also added that, franchising will become a trend that is going strong, will continue to enhance the retail sector as it already accounts for nearly 30% of retail sales. According to Philippine Franchise Association, franchising is a method of practicing and adopting another’s perfected business concept as a way of business.